It is generally known that to produce and grow biological cultures and to effectively complete photosynthesis studies, for example, it is desirable to control and optimize various factors. These factors include the interaction between the liquid culture media and the surrounding gaseous environment as well as the temperature and lighting conditions in the environment of the culture media. For the purpose of increasing the exchange of gas with the liquid culture specimen, shaking and stirring devices are used to increase the interaction of the growth medium to the surrounding gaseous environment.
Shaking or stirring the culture medium stops short in many applications and studies of producing conditions which are most ideal. Temperature uniformity in the environment of the culture medium is also a key factor in many applications and studies. Deviations in the temperature may have adverse effects on the desired growth of the culture medium or may adversely affect the reliability of study results.
Various chambers or workspaces have been developed which provide some means for maintaining a more constant or uniform temperature within the environment containing the growth cultures. These methods include providing a water jacket or strip heaters in the walls surrounding an incubator or growth chamber. However, these methods have various drawbacks and limitations including, in the case of a water jacket incubator, the relative complexity and high cost associated therewith and, in the case of the heated wall or "warm wall" incubator, not only the manufacturing and maintenance expense but the inability to adapt this type of device to an application requiring refrigeration of the culture medium.
Another general disadvantage of past devices for optimizing the parameters associated with culture growth involves the difficulty of setting all of the various conditions quickly and accurately for any given application or study. If shaker mechanisms or other stirring devices are used in a temperature controlled environment by a scientist or technician, the shaker or stirring device is controlled separately from environmental controls such as the lighting and temperature.
Finally, contamination of the culture specimens either from the ambient environment or from cross contamination between culture specimens has been a continuing problem. Various methods for preventing such contamination have been proposed and developed, such as in the area of biological safety cabinets which employ high efficiency particulate air or "HEPA" filters. Again, however, such safety cabinets are adequate for many applications but are not quickly and easily adapted for use in those applications and studies which further require precise temperature control and temperature uniformity, shaking and stirring of the culture medium and easy lighting control. Specifically, none of the known devices in this area can provide quick and precise control of all of these parameters in a relatively low cost manner. It would therefore be desirable to provide a relatively low cost apparatus which allows a combination of the above parameters to be controlled in a quick, easy manner.